Docs & Guides / Free Rules & SRDs
Free Rules & SRDs
Where to get legal, free D&D rules content: the SRD under CC-BY-4.0, Open5e, and how our own Compendium sources and credits it.
Publishers release official System Reference Documents (SRDs) under open licenses. These are complete, legal, and free — safe to use in home games, streamed games, and published adventures.
The sources
- D&D SRD 5.1 (CC-BY-4.0 / OGL-1.0a)— made available by Wizards of the Coast under Creative Commons and the Open Game License, meaning you can freely use and adapt its content.
- Open5e and the D&D 5e API— browsable, API-accessible presentations of open-licensed rules content.
- Third-party OGL publishers— Kobold Press, EN Publishing, Mage Hand Press, Darrington Press/Green Ronin, and others release OGL content. The full breakdown lives in our License & Attribution document.
What our Compendium is built on
Compendium data (items, monsters, spells) is aggregated from Open5e and the D&D 5e API under OGL-1.0a and Creative Commons licenses. Every entry cites its specific source and license, and we deliberately exclude Product Identity — named characters, iconic creatures, and all-rights settings are not included even in paraphrased form. The details are on our Licenses page.
Why this matters for your table
Anything in an SRD is fair game without permission. When in doubt about whether a monster or spell is open content, check the license — or just browse it here with the source already cited.